Dubai-UAE: Dubai International Academic City (DIAC), a business community dedicated to higher education, KPMG Lower Gulf and The Talent Enterprise have announced that they will be collaborating to produce a study on future workforce trends with a specific focus on university students’ career aspirations, employability and engagement with universities and future employers.

In line with DIAC’s commitment to setting regional benchmarks and providing tools for their academic partners to succeed, the findings will serve as a roadmap  that will help strengthen Dubai’s knowledge economy and support the UAE’s national development strategies.

Mohammad Abdullah, Managing Director of DIAC said: “With the unprecedented pace of technological change causing shifts in the workplace, it is very important that we provide the latest future workforce trends to our academic partners so that they can equip the youth with the appropriate set of skills. Through our world-class academic partners, our mandate is to develop the regional talent pool through quality education and supportive environment so we can support the UAE’s goal of developing a competitive knowledge-based economy. This partnership will enable us to gain actionable data, from which we can determine what more we can do for students.”

Marketa Simkova, Associate Partner, People & Change, KPMG Lower Gulf, said: “We are excited to be undertaking this initiative with DIAC and The Talent Enterprise. We are well acquainted with the challenges businesses face when seeking to hire or develop a workforce with the right skills, capable of adapting to the future world of work. Employers are keen to better understand young adults’ preferences and motivations in order to attract, train and develop tomorrow’s workforce. We are proud to be associated with this initiative and look forward to contributing to a project that benefits all stakeholders - industry, academia and students.”

Consultants from KPMG Lower Gulf’s People & Change practice aim to provide incisive insights from employers on changing priorities and capability needs in the industry. This may help in deriving practical solutions to support students with the development of relevant skill sets.

David Jones, Founder & CEO, The Talent Enterprise said, “Our partnership on the What About YOUth effort will allow us to achieve our common goals of providing insights on employability in the region. We are confident it will help us gain a deeper and more diverse understanding of what drives our youth today, which in turn will help educational institutions and employers maximise the success of future generations to come. This MoU underlines our long-term commitment to the development of youth in the region.”

The Talent Enterprise will provide the tools and platform for data collection and analysis, and collaborate with KPMG to provide insights and findings.

DIAC regularly releases leading industry reports dedicated to capturing the latest trends in the education sector. Previous reports covered important subjects such as transnational student mobility.

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About Dubai International Academic City

Dubai International Academic City (DIAC) is the world’s largest Free Zone dedicated to higher education. Established in 2007, as part of TECOM Group, DIAC aims to develop the region’s talent pool and help establish the UAE as a knowledge-based economy through the provision of multi-tiered academic institutions that are internationally accredited.

DIAC is located on a fully-appointed 18 million sq ft campus with state-of-the-art facilities. It is home to 27 universities from 9 countries, including Amity University Dubai Campus, Heriot-Watt University Dubai Campus, University of Wollongong Dubai, BITS Pilani Dubai Campus, Hult International Business School, Murdoch University Dubai, and The University of Manchester Middle East Centre., to name a few.

DIAC provides more than 500 certificate, diploma, undergraduate, post graduate and PHD programmes to over 27,500 students of 150 nationalities and continues to grow as per the needs of its robust and talented academic community.

About KPMG Lower Gulf Limited

KPMG Lower Gulf Limited provides audit, tax and advisory services to a broad range of domestic and international clients across all sectors of business and the economy. We work closely with our clients, assisting them to mitigate risks and highlight opportunities. Established in 1973, KPMG Lower Gulf now consists of approximately 1,300 staff members, including approximately 100 partners and directors, across the UAE and Oman.

KPMG is widely represented in the Middle East and also has offices in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan and the Lebanon. As well as having many of the region’s leading organizations and government-related entities as its clients, KPMG in the Lower Gulf has been party to numerous milestone engagements in the Middle East.

About The Talent Enterprise

The Talent Enterprise is a leading-edge human capital ‘think’ and ‘do’ tank answering tomorrow’s questions today.

The company helps accelerate change through talent assessment, youth enablement and capability development solutions, grounded in applied research and powered by technology. Partnering with policy-makers, employers and educators, TTE enable people and communities to thrive, advancing the application of positive behavioral science.

Their inter-disciplinary team has diverse backgrounds in human resources, psychology, leadership, psychometrics, behavioural economics, education, youth development, machine learning, AI and technology.


Headquartered in Dubai, with a fast-expanding global network of offices and partners, TTE work with over 150+ clients across the Middle East, North and Sub-Saharan Africa, UK, Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India and Pakistan.

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APCO Worldwide
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